Today's News

Galax City Council has approved a letter of support for Medicaid expansion in Virginia, which would make hundreds of additional citizens eligible for healthcare coverage in the city.

Democrats in the General Assembly and Gov. Terry McAuliffe have been pushing for expansion, but Republican legislators oppose the move.

Twin County Regional Hospital CEO Jon Applebaum and Galax Director of Social Services Susan Clark spoke at council’s Oct. 24 meeting about Medicaid expansion and how it would affect citizens. Both stressed the need for such expansion.

INDEPENDENCE – Two Grayson County residents charged in the dog attack death of a 15-month-old girl have pending court dates.

A Grayson Circuit Court grand jury met on Oct. 28 and indicted Terra Lynn Connell and John Terry Underwood on charges involving the January death of Payton Lyrik Sawyers, who was killed by the couple’s dog, according to police reports.

At the Oct. 24 Galax City Council meeting, special recognition was presented to a Galax High School coach and three Galax Police Department detectives.

Veteran theater coach B.J. Carroll was lauded for her induction into the 2016 Virginia High School League Hall of Fame. Carroll is the GHS coach with the most wins, leading theatrical teams to the state championships six times and coaching numerous state best actor award winners.

INDEPENDENCE — A North Dakota man was charged in a single-vehicle accident after overturning a tractor-trailer along the New River Valley Parkway on Nov. 1.

According to a report from Virginia State Trooper J.E. Tilson, Anthony Lee Smith, 60, of West Fargo, N.D., was operating a 2000 Camp Peterbilt tractor trailer along the parkway when he ran off the right side of the roadway, hit an embankment and overturned into a fence. The accident occurred around 5 p.m.

HILLSVILLE — When state legislators toured the Southwestern Virginia Training Center in Hillsville last week, they didn’t find a cold, clinical institution. Instead, they visited a neighborhood of cottages that looked like many other residential neighborhoods.

Trash cans sat at the curb for garbage days. Pumpkins decorated lawns for the Halloween holiday. Bedrooms were decorated to the occupants’ wishes. A resident returning from work off-campus welcomed a visitor inside to show them around.

At the Oct. 27 public hearing sponsored by the special joint subcommittee of the Virginia Senate Finance Committee, Dr. Jack Barber, interim commissioner for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, outlined facts and figures from all the training centers across the state that have already closed or are in the process of closing.

Barber’s presentation updated the public on the training center closures. To begin, he showed a graph illustrating the census information from 2000 to October of this year.